A/N: I have been futzing around with this one for far too long. It's time to let it go. Get ready for some feels and a little fluff.

She heard the door open and finally released the white knuckled grip she'd had on her coffee mug for the last thirty minutes since the text 'On my way home' had popped up on her phone. It had been her first communication from him in hours and done little to relieve her anxiety. "Deeks?"

"Yeah," he called stepping into the living room.

She rose and hugged him. "Are you all right?" Her eyes roamed his body searching for any sign of physical harm.

"I'm okay."

"I got worried when you didn't call," she told him as he collapsed onto the couch.

That was an understatement. It had taken every ounce of willpower she had not to bombard him with text messages. With every passing minute she'd grown more certain that Whiting's entire plan for "coffee" had actually been a sting operation and Deeks had been dragged off to the deepest, darkest hole of a prison she could find. Panicked was a more appropriate word for what Kensi had been feeling for the past three hours as she'd waited for him to walk in the door.

"Yeah, sorry, I just um, I had a lot to think about," he told her, his eyes looking past her to a place she couldn't see.

It was that look. The one he got when the world had caught up with him and he'd resigned himself to the fact that a happy ending wasn't something he deserved. He was lost in the past, had gone back to the place where he'd had to fight tooth and nail every single day just to survive, when he'd been alone and forced to make decisions she knew he regretted. Watching him relive those choices hurt her in a way she would never admit to him. It was an awful look and it scared her.

She sat next to him, covering his hand with her own. "Baby, what happened?"

"I went to see Whiting. She wants me…she told me—" he seemed unable to continue.

"Are you going to jail?" She tried unsuccessfully to keep the tremor out of her voice.

He shook his head. "Not yet."

She swallowed. "Okay, that's good. That means we have time."

She waited for him to say something else, but he just sat there, looking lost, increasing the level of her anxiety by a thousand percent every second. She desperately needed to know more; a word for word transcription of everything he and Whiting had discussed would not have been out of place in this moment.

He still wasn't looking at her when he finally spoke. "If I asked you to get in the car and go, right now, just drive away and leave everything behind, would you come with me?"

The question froze her. This wasn't some flight of fancy about beaches and sunshine. It wasn't a joke. He was serious.

"Would you go?" he asked again, finally looking at her. "Without asking any questions, would you come with me and just…leave?"

The fear in his eyes shook her. Marty Deeks was many things but scared wasn't one of them. Whatever had happened, it had been enough to make him actually consider leaving. For good.

"Yes." She said it without hesitation, her mind already racing. If they left now they could be out of California in a few hours. They would have to change cars, ditch their phones. Even that might not be enough to keep Callen and Sam from coming after them. They wouldn't just be running. They would have to vanish.

"Even after all you've been through, even after how hard you worked to get back to NCIS?"

He had no idea how very little NCIS mattered compared to him. If she hadn't made that clear before she was going to now. After the year they'd had, after all they'd been through she refused to lose him. Not to Whiting, not to anyone. If he was going, she would be right there beside.

"Baby," she touched her forehead to his, cradling his face in her hands, "If you say we have to go, then we're gone. I trust you. I believe in you. You're a good man, a good detective. I would run with you anywhere."

He shuddered and when he spoke his voice shook. "I don't know what's going to happen…"

She pulled him into her chest, her fingers moving soothingly through his hair. "It's going to be all right," she murmured. "We're going to be all right. No matter what. I've got your back. I'll be right here. Just breathe. Breathe."

"I don't want to lose you. What we have…"

"You won't. I'm right here."

He took a deep breath, finally pulling away enough to look at her, his face utter misery. "Every time I think this is done, it comes back again. Maybe I deserve it, maybe I should just go turn myself in. At least then it would be over."

"No," Kensi told him firmly. "We have already gone down that road. What you did, you did for the right reasons and we both know that. Whiting knows it too. You saved her life. She needs to let it rest."

"She wants me to….spy on LAPD. She thinks Bates is dirty."

"She's blackmailing you," Kensi said incredulously. "What a bitch. She better pray I don't see her anytime soon. What a way to say thank you."

Deeks finally quirked half a smile. "Yeah there's a significant lack of gratitude there for the whole life-saving thing. Kind of thought that would buy me a little absolution."

"I say we go kick her ass before we Bonnie and Clyde it out of here," Kensi muttered.

He chuckled and she felt some of the tension leave her body. The urgency of the moment was broken and reason started to resettle over both of them. They weren't going anywhere, at least not tonight.

"I'm sorry," he told her. "The more I thought about it the more I panicked and when I saw you I just…" he shook his head, "I would never ask you to leave like that."

"I know," she told him. "We're going to figure this out. Together."

"I don't want you—"

"I know you don't want to drag me into this," she cut him off as gently as she could. "But you sat by my bedside for months and not once did you let me think I could quit. It's my turn to take care of you now." She smiled and squeezed his hand. "And there's no way I'm letting Whiting take you off to prison alone. You're far too pretty to last long in there without me."

"You know, there are no such thing as a couple's cell in prison," he told her as she slid into his lap.

"They'll make an exception for us, Clyde," she teased. "Besides, we won't be in there for long anyway."

"You got a plan to bust us out, Bonnie?" he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

She smiled and leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "Nell's going to bake a cake with a file in it."

"Oh she's in on it huh?"

"Mmhhmm. And Eric's got enough TNT to blow those cinderblock walls wide open."

"He does seem to have a sudden and unhealthy obsession with explosions."

"Callen and Sam will be on lookout duty."

"And what's Hetty up to while we're making our great escape?"

"Getaway driver."

"Naturally," he nodded. "Well you've clearly got this all figured out. I don't know why I was ever worried."

"You're not in this alone, Deeks. This time, I've got you covered. I promise."

A/N: Leave your love in the reviews!